You would hope that this spark of genius would, in most workplaces, have been quickly snuffed out at inception:

- I know, let's sell peeled mandarins.
- Yeah, righto. Dickhead.

But then it's now widely recognised that a good idea is a product chiefly of quantity - not a eureka moment so much as a casting call. Blunt honesty and logic can scar creative types, so we could be generous and assume that at its genesis this idea might have fallen under the aegis of a brainstorming - no such thing as a bad idea - session.

Evidently it survived any early culling, and it's possible it even drew some corporate praise:

- That's a fine example of proactively redefining interactive partnerships and looks to be the Uber of mandarins going forward.

Or something like that.

But it's beyond this point, and especially when the moral vacuum of its new plastic wrapping is fully realised, that youâ€™ve gotta wonder how many more people this went past without even one of them raising a hand. But of course, none of this is a mistake. No doubt, a lot of the best ideas start out looking crazy, but this is neither best, nor crazy - just obvious.

There is no more reliable trend than consumer demand for convenience and comfort. Twin forces that, taken to the nth degree, now shape our lives more than any other factor. We exist in temperature-regulated, fully-equipped, risk-eliminated comfort zones. Comfort, convenience, security and entertainment on tap. Zoo-human.

Comfort and convenience cocoon us but this is a reverse chrysalis, transforming us from butterfly to caterpillar. Instead of stepping outside your comfort zone - the mantra of all personal development - it's become far more likely you'll leave it only on a stretcher. In spite of advances increasing our lifespan, rates of childhood obesity in the developed world now suggest that many children will not outlive their parents - surely a sign that society has reached it's zenith.